Lewis Hamilton nails dominant position in qualifying lap for the Malaysian Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton has managed to book for himself the pole position for the Malaysian Grand Prix by registering a one minute, 32.850 second effort.

Hamilton’s championship-leading team mate Nico Rosberg was behind by a gaping 0.414 seconds. Hamilton’s attempt was within half-a-second of the fastest time ever recorded at the 5.5-kilometre Sepang track, which was set by Fernando Alonso in a V10-engined Renault in 2005.

While speaking with reports, Hamilton said that he felt good out there on Saturday and wasn’t ever under threat. Hamilton is entering today’s race at pole position, but is trailing behind his team mate Rosberg by eight points in the standings.

Rosberg has had a stunning set of wins with the latest being a fortnight ago in Singapore, where Hamilton finished a distant third after an uncharacteristically off-colour display. Rosberg clearly had the measure of Hamilton then but following the latter’s crushing superiority in qualifying, the pair’s team boss Toto Wolff left no one in doubt about who he thought was the man in form.

While Lewis was at his best on Saturday, the race is still open and it could go either way. Rosberg and Hamilton are evenly matched on long-run pace while the gruelling race, a slog in sweltering temperatures, can also take a toll on the tyres and cars.

Hamilton said that he was going in Sunday’s race with lot of positivity.